Should Artemisia annua (wormwood) tea be used as a prophylactic in endemic countries?

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My answer is 'No' because unjustified use of this drug in endemic countries is not appropriate as this may account for increasing resistance and the drug may not stay effective for future use. Further, inadequate amount of drug, as will be there when it will used as tea formulation, is one of the major reasons behind the phenomenon of drug resistance.

The risk of inadequate amounts of drug resides elsewhere:
- almost 50 % of the ACTs sold in Africa are fakes
- ACTs have a very short shelf life in tropical climate. The dried artemisia herb however more than 3 years
- According to OXFAM most of the ACTs are sold in groceries and are used without medical control at substandard doses. But overdosis with ACTs may also lead to dormancy of the parasite and consequently to resistance and recrudescence.

It was time that you opened the discussion on the relative merits or deficiencies of ACTs versus artemisia annua tea in your Journal.
We here in Senegal use powdered leaves of artemisia annua in peanut butter to administer it to children suffering from malaria. The curing rate is >95%, We wonder if peanut butter plays a role of synergy in therapy and prophylaxy in addition to the obvious effects that it renders the bitter herb palatable to children
senegalaxy@gmail.com

Poppycock to the Guest who claims use of the tea will create resistance and will lead to short supplies. Parsley grows in anyone's back garden. Artemisia annua can do the same. A resistance to synthetic artemisia analogues has already happened and the increased dosage of these synthetic drugs, resorted to in response, is causing other life threatening complications in patients. For what purpose? To make more money for the patent holder? Your argument does not stack up with any sensible reader. Grow the tea, it's a more humane solution.

I totally agree with you, anyone can grow this, I planted it not knowing what it was, it never got watered and survived through -3c to 47c. I live in a very hot part of Western Australia and have done very little to help this plant along, it is vibrant and growing beautifully. Now that I know what it is I drink it daily and bathe my ponies cancerous eye in it daily. My pony is 28 years and the vet said I have no other option than to put her down because her tumour was quite nasty. I started to bathe her eye with a Artimisinin tea I brew, one day it bled a lot of muck/blood, since then it seems to be getting smaller and she comes to me and rubs her eye into it knowing its doing her good. I couldn't handle the taste/smell at first but now it just smells like disinfectant to me:)

Evidence from the field is unanimously in favour of this approach. No resistance has been observed so far. Furthermore, cheap, hence accessible to all, Artemisia annua is also a repellent against mosquitoes. No counterfeits because produced locally? It is difficult to see why anyone would be against it, unless he is motivated by pharmaceutical companies' greed.

Use of the tea should not be recommended when other preparations are availble. But what to do when there is nothing else available?
The development of resistance by use of herbal extracts is overestimated. Artemisia tea as an herbal extract was used for almost 2000 years in China and no resistance was reported. Large scale introduction of the purified substance, i.e. artemisinin, or derivatives demonstrated already resistance after some decates. Therefore, it is very likely that the role of synergistic components in herbal extracts,which might circumvent resistance, is underestimated.

whether in tea, pills or capsules, the whole artemisia annua plant prevents and heals, is cheap, shows no resistance or side effets, is durable, easily available and makes independant from pharma industry. It has multiple active substances and thus makes of artemisia annua a polytherapy.
In contrast to chemical derivates and extracts of artemisia annua, which are perishable, show resistance, have side effects.
These are helping commerce, not the sick.

During a recent session of orthopedic surgery on children in Central African Republic, we used capsules of artemisia annua for prevention of malaria during the surgical period, with a 65% decrease of the parasitemia in 25 evaluated patients. We used also the capsules in 5 cases of malaria attack (among whom our anesthesiologist) with wonderful immediate results and in two cases decrease of the parasitemia from 1500 to 180 and from 8400 to 80 after 48 hours. The use of artemisia annua powder is apparently more effective than the tea and can be preferred if permitted by the local conditions, but the tea preparation is still the easier and the less expensive method for prevention and treatment of malaria.

Artemisinin can never be used as a prohylactic regardless of its formulation. We know that it is extremely rapidly eliminated, so it really doesn´t matter if you take it as a tea or in a pill. Artemisinin just doesn´t fulfill the PK criteria for prophylaxis.
The question should have been "Should Artemisia annua (wormwood) tea be used as a TREATMENT in endemic countries?", in which case I would still answer "No".

We never claimed that artemisinin should be used as prophylactic and agree with you on this poin. In fact this molecule is immunodepressive, hepatotoxic, cardiotoxic, embryotoxic, genotoxic, spleenotoxic, hemoloytic and has strong effects on male fertility.
We claim that artemisia annua tea or capsules may be effective against malaria because it is a polytherapy with dozens of active molecules. Even if the herbal powder used contains no artemisinin it is prophylactic, as documented in several well documented clinical trials or field experiences. Available on request. lutgenp@gms.lu

Dear Pierre,
As far as I know artemisinins (ARTs) are safe for humans. Meta-analysis has demostrated this. ARTs have been shown to display toxicity in animals, but there are several important differences accounting for this.
Also, I am not aware of the field trials showing that herbal powder with or without artemisinin is prophylactic. Could you send me those references?
pedrovcravo@gmail.com

No, the artemisia herbal tea should not be used in the prophylaxis of malaria because the low dose of the chemical in it would probably help to select the naturaly resitant P. falciparum parasites.There was an interesting project supported by the Brazilian government in which tea bags would be provided in the Amazon, and it was interrupted for this reason.

My answer is yes!!
Most people that believe it should be used to eradicate Malaria will not sign in to vote. They are intelligent people that know how the world works. They will not speak openly about anything that will cut profits of powerful Pharmaceutical company’s. My father, with over 100 other people, were put in a tent to die of malaria, he & another man crawled out they were the only 2 to survive. Now it is believed that systemic lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune disease that killed him, often starts with parasitic borne infectious disease as this.
The only reason anyone would want to keep people sick and dying is for their own greed.

I have been told to try some sort of tea or preperation, with arthritis RA and osteo and fibromyalgia, but if taking regular would it do damage..but which is teh best way to take and what type of formulation,